Definition
A Latin term from old English law and conveyancing meaning to confirm, ratify, or give additional strength and validity to a prior grant, right, or title. The term describes the act of making firm or legally secure something that already exists but may be defective, incomplete, or of uncertain effect. A confirmare operates not to create a new interest but to fortify or perfect one that is already in being. It appears most commonly in the language of deeds of confirmation, where a grantor affirms and strengthens a previous conveyance or grants assurance to a title that might otherwise be questioned.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers encountering confirmare in historical legal instruments — particularly medieval and early modern English deeds, plea rolls, and conveyancing precedents — should understand that it functions differently from an original grant. A deed of confirmation (carta confirmationis) does not stand alone as a conveyance of new property; it presupposes a prior title and operates to remove doubt or supply a defect in that prior instrument. This distinction matters for tracing chain of title in historical records: finding a confirmare instrument tells you there is an earlier conveyance to locate, often one with some legal vulnerability.
The term is especially common in materials drawn from Littleton's Tenures, where confirmation is treated as one of the recognized modes of conveyance in the old common law system. Researchers working with Coke upon Littleton or plea rolls from the Year Books era will find confirmare appearing alongside terms such as ratificare and approbare, and precision about which word was used can signal different legal effects — confirmation restoring or perfecting a prior act, ratification supplying authority retrospectively.
In ecclesiastical and royal contexts, confirmare appears in papal bulls and royal charters confirming grants of land or privilege to religious houses. These are not mere formalities: a royal confirmation could transform a grant of uncertain or contested validity into one backed by the Crown's authority. Researchers in ecclesiastical history or monastic cartularies should treat confirmare instruments as potentially altering the legal force, not merely the ceremonial record, of prior grants.
The term drops out of standard English legal usage after the shift to modern conveyancing forms, so it appears almost exclusively in sources predating the mid-nineteenth century. Modern equivalents — deed of confirmation, ratification, estoppel by deed — carry similar legal functions but under different vocabulary.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary traces confirmare to the compound of con (together) and firmare (to strengthen), rendering it literally as "to make firm together" or "to strengthen jointly." Burrill's reference to Littleton section 520 anchors the term firmly in the classical common law of conveyancing, where Littleton treated confirmation as a recognized mode of assurance of land. Burrill's entry, though brief, correctly identifies the dual character of the term: it both describes a procedural act (confirming) and carries a specific doctrinal function (adding legal validity to a prior and potentially vulnerable transaction).
Historical dictionaries are generally consistent on the core meaning but thin on practical operation. What they do not convey is the context-sensitivity of the term: the legal effect of a confirmare instrument depended heavily on the nature of the original defect it was meant to cure, the capacity of the confirming party, and whether the original grantee held any estate capable of being confirmed. Researchers should not assume that a deed styled as confirmare automatically cured every defect in the prior title — the classical learning on this point (developed at length in Coke upon Littleton) imposed significant restrictions.
Jurisdictional Note
Confirmare is a term of English legal history with limited relevance to American or other common law jurisdictions except in the context of historical land grants — particularly colonial-era grants tracing back to royal charters or early conveyancing instruments that replicated English forms. Researchers in American property law will encounter the functional equivalent in deeds of confirmation or quitclaim deeds but not typically the Latin term itself.